Catalytic preparation of pyrrolidones from renewable resources

Use of renewable resources for production of valuable chemical commodities is becoming a topic of great national interest and importance. This objective fits well with the U.S. DOE's objective of promoting the industrial bio-refinery concept in which a wide array of valuable chemical, fuel, food, nutraceuticals, and animal feed products all result from the integrated processing of grains, oil seeds, and other bio-mass materials. The bio-refinery thus serves to enhance the overall utility and profitability of the agriculture industry as well as helping to reduce the USA's dependence on petroleum. Pyrrolidones fit well into the bio-refinery concept since they may be produced in a scheme beginning with the fermentation of a portion of the biorefinery's sugar product into succinate. Pyrrolidones are a class of industrially important chemicals with a variety of uses including polymer intermediates, cleaners, and "green solvents" which can replace hazardous chlorinated compounds. Battelle has developed an efficient process for the thermo-catalytic conversion of succinate into pyrrolidones, especially N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. The process uses both novel Rh based catalysts and novel aqueous process conditions and results in high selectivities and yields of pyrrolidone compounds. The process also includes novel methodology for enhancing yields by recycling and converting non-useful side products of the catalysis into additional pyrrolidone. The process has been demonstrated in both batch and continuous reactors. Additionally, stability of the unique Rh-based catalyst has been demonstrated.